nycruise1

Wow looks really good. Bigger menu than Chopsticks on the Pride. Thanks

Believe the Bon Voyage is things for you room when you first board (decorations or tasty treats). Must have realized you did not order it. We board when you disembark. If you happen to notice at lunch, does the Seafood Shack have asian food? It did on the inaugural.

Yes we saw a video on Venezia food and it showed that, with the menu changing each day. There is a chance they have it just for this inaugural/journeys cruise. Food looked really good. Hopefully it will be on every cruise. We will find out soon.

I am on it so definitely you should go, I will bring up the fun level on the sailing 🙂. More seriously, it is essentially a brand new ship and there is a retractable roof on part of the Lido so that will help with the cold weather traveling up and down. Are you the type of cruiser who really does not spend much time in the cabin? For me it would not be much of a problem as I am not in there much other than sleeping. If that is you, go for it. Worse case you will not take another long winter cruise from the Northeast with someone you do not know. It is almost a year from now. Can you arrange a meeting with the group before then so everyone gets to know each other better before you go?

We dont get casino offers. Gamble a bit but not nearly enough to hit their radar. Luckily between the restart pricing and 50th anniversary sale, we have 12 cruises between 2021 - 2024 at rates below prepandemic pricing. That has all dried up and no good prices anymore. Have not looked at other lines but it will be easier to do so if they are priced less I guess.

Not to hijack your amazing review, but why the change? Just needed something new or tired of Carnival?

I have always said the MDR food is restaurant quality. Maybe not a Michelin rated place but certainly as good as your typical neighborhood restaurant. Unlike many here, I have found the buffet food got better post pandemic. I used to look for alternatives at lunch, but am enjoying the lunch buffet more and more. Cant wait to see the new offerings on the Venezia in 3 weeks!

Slightly off topic but seems to be many gift card users here. Is there a dollar limit to the amount of gift cards that may be used on each cruise?

I am pretty sure I was able to completely move deposits and not lose any money when I went from a shorter to a longer cruise. There was a bit of pushback and I said to the agent I am looking to move to a longer and more expensive cruise. Think this happened twice without any penalty. Another time we changed from 2 people in 2 rooms to 3 people in one room and did lose $50 of the deposit for the person who did not go.

We have cruised 7 times since the restart, none on the excel ships, and still find little difference. It's a Carnival cruise, with only minor differences. Actually find the Lido buffet to be better, and eat it mostly at lunch. Precovid I was seeking out other options more. MDR was quicker on some sailings than others, just like precovid. Cant think of anything I really miss or was materially different. Guess that is why we keep sailing!

Wow I am the only one so far. Order it EVERY night with a glass of milk and love it. Maybe because I prefer it loose and that is how it normally is. Thinking about this has my mouth watering for it now. Thankfully cruise in 2 months.

We have never experienced anything to question our cruising with Carnival. We do enjoy the fun factor, and that vibe more than makes up for any questionable behavior. But even that was never what I would consider out of bounds. I will agree that Carnival does not get the most genteel crowd, but most are there just to have fun. I hope the day never comes, but if something ever happened to us personally, I guess we would consider our options at that point. Even then, a single incident likely would not preclude us from cruising with Carnival.

I was not aware of this and I do not remember this being an issue. We were let off right in front of where they pull into the parking lot so it was a short walk. Do you self-embark? That would be a bigger walk then the walk from the Uber dropoff to the door leading into the terminal.

You should be able to make it up in hotel savings. Miami/Fort Lauderdale hotels have gone up alot but Houston still is low. We stayed near the airport and took an Uber the next morning. Was about $75 each way from IAH and Hobby is lower if its flights work for you. Galveston hotels are much higher.

Totally shocked, especially with Vicenza having so many varied and longer itineraries including Journeys cruises. I think the only way we would consider this is to combine it with an extended visit to at least one West Coast stop and then treat the cruise itself as the destination. Cabo is fine but I compare Ensenada to Freeport, not worth bothering with.

Never saw a 75 milestone card. Have seen a few 50 even in person. Now you need to get to 100 and show us that. 😁

Never noticed this before but looked after reading your message and I have the same thing even though still platinum, must be a glitch in the system: All that glitters isn't gold, or even platinum. Because you're at the top of the VIFP Club, and that means you've got your own toll-free number for sales & service.

Same with us. We were moved over from the June Magic and then when the great itineraries came out we booked the 12 day February cruise.

We are on an aft on 2 on the June cruise and an aft on 1 in February. Have stayed on 1 on a few cruises over the years and never had a problem, usually quiet. We dont look for 1 or 2 specifically but sometimes with some of the rate codes those are the only decks offered.

We were on Sunshine and they heated the main pool. Even though it was not covered, and some days were cool and misty, we were able to use the pool everyday. In fact one day it was actually hot, like a hot tub. But they lowered it to a reasonable warmth the next day. We had this and the worst part was walking on deck and the fog horn would go off--it was loud and startling! Never heard it when we were in our middeck inside cabin. Very much enjoyed Halifax. Check out the Citadel if you have any interest in military history,

I found it helpful to read other people's accounts so thought I would share ours. It was on the Elation and though it may be the oldest unrefurbished ship in the fleet we loved the cruises VERY much. We received a standard letter in the room the final sea day directing us to go to one of the lounges the next morning at 9:15. There were also transit passes if we wanted to leave after docking to explore Jacksonville. It directed us to contact our current room steward if we needed help if we were switching rooms. Thankfully we were not and left our usual mess 🙂 in the room. After breakfast we went to the meeting lounge and there was the standard setup of breakfast pastries, water, juice, coffee and tea. There were 60 of us so no group picture but there was the Cruise Enjoy Repeat sign and the photographer took an individual picture of us together next to it and sent us each a complimentary photo to our room a few days later. The hotel director also sent us a small fruit basket and the bottle of champagne they normally give out. 2 employees came around with the scanner they use when debarking and scanned our old cards and gave us the envelope with the new ones. Probably around 9:30 then and they were still calling late zones but we were free to leave the lounge and roam around the ship. Around 10 I went to guest services to apply some gift cards but our new folio was not active yet so they said to come back later. Also was not working at the kiosk yet. That was where debarking was and I saw and chatted with the cruise director and a port services guy. He said they normally clear the ship by 9:45 but there was a 15 minute delay. 2 passengers had not left and they checked their room and found them hung over. Must have been a blockbuster night as he said they were brought to medical. He did say that since they were accounted for the ship was officially cleared even though they were still temporarily aboard, and boarding would begin at the usual 10:45. Bopped around the eerily empty ship a bit and then stopped by the lounge again. In the time I had left they broke about champagne and mimosas with filled glasses and opened bottles sitting out. Sat down with a few other guests I recognized, who brought some of the bottles to our table, more people joined us, and we had a good time! Finally about 11 people were walking in with their boarding passes and an employee said we needed to leave since that lounge was a muster station. We decided to get our own muster out of the way for this cruise and went to our muster station but it would not read our cards. Employee said that sometimes happens for a while with B2Bers and we should come back later and we did about an hour later and it did then. Dont remember when we went back to our room but when we did the card worked. As for the experience of being on our first B2B it was a 5 day followed by a 7 day. They seemed different which was nice since 2 of the 3 ports were different on the 7 day, there were 2 additional menus at dinner, of course the passengers had turned over, and we even had a new steward. The only issues that had cropped up was midway during the first cruise the assistant maitre D asked about our dining preferences and we requested the same early seating and table which he later confirmed. But when we got our new cards they assigned us to a different table in a different section. We went to Dining Inquiries and our original table was taken but they were able to seat us there as they switched the table number for us. So our old table number was at a different table and our new unused number was at our original table. The steward also did not make up our room on embarkation day even though we had evening service. He apologized the next day and it was no big deal. That is about all I can remember but feel free to ask any questions.

We are on the June cruise with you, saw you on the roll call, had originally booked the Magic. Also booked a Feb 2024, there are some great itineraries on those long cruises out of NYC. Ports Carnival typically does not go to. They all look good, as Jamman said, go for it!

Excited for the ports, Carnival usually does not go to them and we have not been to 3 of these. It will be nice to escape half of a NY February. We will be on the first Caribbean Venezia sailing in June and will report back on it. Was originally on the Magic but the ship was repositioned. Saw this Journeys cruise and jumped on it, so hopefully the Venezia will live up to its billing. Looks beautiful.

This is what I was thinking, just have to treat this booking like it is a guarantee. Luckily we did not get a special room this cruise, but I still select the location, make sure it is not under a public area, etc. But if we are essentially getting a guarantee, they should give some sort of OBC. I also wonder if we are unhappy with the assignment, how easy it will be to change it. Also when they gave us a date, they should have given one they would have been sure to meet. Now people on other groups are saying it will be out by the end of the week. SMH If we miss a due date, they are not very understanding...

I wonder how much of a Costa experience this will be versus Carnival, have they said? My questions/concerns, will they still have the Carnival menus, chocolate melting cake, seaday brunch? Cupid shuffle at a sailaway party? I am ok with some changes, that might even be nice, but I want to feel I am on a Carnival ship with a Carnival experience. There are some new itineraries I am interested in and the pricing is good, but I would like to know more about the onboard product.